TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 29 



rancher does not do it, somebody else will; so each must do what he 

 knows to be unwise or suffer a greater loss. This practice prevents 

 the production of seed, hastens the extinction of the best plants, 

 and reduces the total quantity of feed produced on the range that 

 season. Experimental measurements of the amount of dry matter 

 produced by certain cultivated forage plants that were cropped 

 back every week showed that they produced less than one-third as 

 much as similar plants that grew to maturity before being harvested. 15 

 While this estimate of 30 per cent does not of necessity apply to 

 range forage plants, there is little doubt that the percentage is 

 approximately the same in their case. A fence, therefore, is just as 

 necessary to keep stock off certain areas at times as it is to keep 

 them from leaving an area. 



Improper seasonal use of feed. — Frequently on part of a given range 

 there is feed which is good only in the summer and which must be 

 used at that time in order to make the most of it. On another 

 part of the range is feed which may be used both winter and summer, 

 but the stock prefer it at any time to the summer feed. If the 

 stock are sheep, the herder can hold them on the summer feed in 

 the summer time; but if they are cattle they will eat the winter 

 feed in the summer time, allowing the other to be wasted. It is 

 impossible to control cattle on such a range unless the summer feed 

 can be fenced and the cattle held upon it until they get hungry. 

 Once having commenced to eat it they usually do well upon it. 



This condition may be reversed as to season. Feed that is avail- 

 able only at a particular time of the year can not be utilized at all 

 unless taken at that time. • Stock always eat first what they like 

 best, even though the later consequence of such a practice is starva- 

 tion. 



On certain areas there is a crop of feed available only for a short 

 season. A striking example of this is the abundant and excellent 

 feed on the upper slopes of the high mountains in the middle of the 

 summer. But stock can not stay in these localities during the 

 winter because of the temperature and the lack of feed. Therefore, 

 in order that such feed may be utilized, it is necessary that- it be 

 eaten by stock that can come to the region during the summer and 

 go elsewhere during the winter. In other words, it is summer range 

 and must be associated with some winter range in order that it may 

 be used at all. 



If winter range of proper grazing capacity is within driving distance 

 for sheep, as it is in certain places in Wyoming and Utah, the condi- 

 tions necessary for the utilization of the feed are supplied for those 

 who can get control of both kinds of range, provided there is a 

 passageway between with sufficient feed for the stock in transit. If 



» See Farmers' Bulletin 228, 1915. 



